TIEDEMANIA!!

Wednesday, December 11, 2013

I wrote this entry in early November but never got around to editing and posting it until now.
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I've really been wanting to post about Clementine and her Halloween, but there's so much cuteness to write about that I've felt too overwhelmed to begin. It was her third Halloween, and just like the other two Halloweens, she came to my work to trick or treat. She remembered last year, when she dressed as Tinkerbell and walked around the office getting treats from my coworkers. That year, she was just over one year old, so I planted healthy treats in advance. Instead of her picking up candy which she wouldn't be allowed to eat, I left grapes, Goldfish crackers, and little cookies. She had a blast.

This year however, her pallet is more advanced and her standards all the more higher - in other words. she wants candy! Anyhow, she was really looking forward to coming in. We bought her an Elmo outfit, but in the end she went with the Bumblebee "fairy" costume which was handed down to her by her friend Miranda. (Allie also found a bumble bee doll costume and put it on Clementine's favorite fairy Vidia - you can see her in the photo) That day was cold and grey so Allie quickly crocheted a yellow and black striped hat Clementine could wear with her costume. She and Allie showed up at the office at 3:30. When I met them at the reception desk Cleme had already grabbed a peanut butter cup and was chowing down, doing her yummy food moan/mantra. For the rest of trick or treating, she remember that candy saying, "I like the orange ones."

We trick or treated all over the 14th, 15th, and first half of the 16th floor before Clementine got too tired to continue. She doesn't really nap anymore and this visit came in the midst of her daily down period. She was so much less shy than last year and did a great job telling everyone "trick or treat" and "thank you." She very carefully picked out her candy from each person. At first she just grabbed sucker after sucker. Then she branched into more colorful candies, collecting pixies sticks and fruit vines. Midway through, we all shared a three pack of Whoppers, and then she started collecting those. She was learning on the fly about candy.

Once, we got home, Cleme and Allie took a detour to trick or treat at a neighbors house. I went on ahead to get rid of all of our bags. As soon as Cleme was home, she insisted on pouring out her bag of candy onto the red living room chair. She started sorting it, caressing it, ogling it. Allie pushed some candy back into the pile from the edge of the chair and Cleme snatched at her hand and opened it up, to make sure Allie hadn't palmed any candies. She was very possessive over her candy, telling us it was "hers." Clementine has never been a grabby, possessive, or "mine" type child so it was really a trip to see her hoarding her candy. She's also never been allowed to eat much candy (this was surely the most candy she's ever seen in one place) so she doesn't whine too much for it. I got the impression that she really felt that she earned it and it was hers. Normally when we have sweets, we are sharing with her and she gratefully accepts what we give her.

We thought it would be fun to go back out and visit a few friend and neighbors for trick or treating. We asked Cleme, "Do you want to visit the house with chickens?" Do you want to visit Miranda? Do you want to visit Graham and Tracy? Do you want to go for a stroller ride?" Every time the answer was, "no." We asked, do you want to get more candy, and she said, "no, I already have enough" as she pawed through her pile. We really wanted to go out, so on a hunch I said, "do you want to go out and bring your candy with us?" She was into it - she just hadn't wanted to leave her precious stash of candy. We loaded up and headed out. We visited our neighbors behind us and our friends down the street. It was so adorable watching her trick or treat, hitting the door lightly with her open hand.

Ever since that day, Cleme's candy pile has been one or her main toys. She usually wants to sleep with it in her crib so we put the bag on the chair beside her. She feeds it to her fairies. She pours her it into her fairy nest. My parents visited last weekend and gave her a few candies they got at their hotel (a box of pink nerds, a box of purple nerds, a three pack of gobstoppers - which she will not get to eat). Days later, she would dig out those candies and tell me "Grandma gave me the pink one and the purple one and the rainbow one." She likes the sound of the Nerds boxes rattling and had the idea to pick them both up and put them to her ears. She told me they were "candy ears."

Days later, she started obsessing over walruses. She kept telling Allie how much she loved them. Allie was befuddled because we haven't read much or talked much about walruses with her. FInally she picked up some candy and showed it to Allie. She had been talking about whoppers the whole time, but had misremembered their name. We didn't bother to correct her.

Clementine has gained an appreciation for potty humor, though thankfully she doesn't use it too much. These days she mainly goes "Pssss. I am pretending to pee on the bed" or what have you. Last month she was cuddling one morning in bed with Allie and after a long silence said, "Kitty poop. Puppy poop" and thought it was the funniest joke ever,

Sunday, November 3, 2013

We went to the wedding of my cousin Luke last month. There were lots of little kids there. For the ceremony, we sat in the back, in case Clementine got restless or loud. She did pretty well, holding her two favorite fairy dolls and climbing on and off the bench. At her noisiest point, she was holding a scented bag of dried, purple, lavender flowers. She kept huffing it and somewhat loudly saying, "It smells like onions!" This was a great moment of toddler logic based on the fact that in our back yard at home, we have a chive plant. The chive flowers are purple, which Cleme has spent a lot of time picking, don't look too different from the crushed lavender flowers. And of course, the chive flowers do smell kind of like onions.

Friday, October 25, 2013

Allie told me a funny story. Clementine and her were out in the garage yesterday, organizing our overflow. Clementine was mainly helping by taking stuff from the garage into the kitchen, for her fairies to use, or by sitting on the treadmill, thumbing through food magazines and commenting on how yummy all the food looked. Suddenly she heard a noise, "What dat noise??" Allie hadn't noticed and asked her to describe it. "It sound like Papa's toothbrush." I think it was probably the ice machine.